Friday, 01 December, 2017

ERC Consolidator Grants (LMU)

Research funding

A. Högele (left) and L. Pollet (right). Picture: NIM

The European Research Council (ERC) awarded the NIM scientists Prof Alexander Högele and Prof Lode Pollet with generously endowed ERC Consolidator Grants over a period of five years. Notably, both have previously received ERC Starting Grants from the ERC.

Innovative nanomaterials exhibit highly unusual chemical and physical properties, which are of great interest for a variety of technological applications. The NIM scientist Professor Alexander Högele leads a research group in the field of nanophotonics. Consequently, his work focuses on the development of novel nanomaterials with exceptional optical characteristics. In 2013 he received an ERC Starting Grant for a project that was devoted to the investigation of carbon nanotubes. These materials have a broad range of potential applications in areas such as the realization of eavesdropping-proof quantum communication. With the funding provided by the new ERC Consolidator Grant, Högele will explore the potential uses of “Layered Semiconductors and Hybrid Systems for Quantum Optics and Opto-valleytronics”. The semiconductors referred to in the project’s title are materials made up of ultrathin layers of compounds known as transition-metal dichalcogenides. Like carbon nanotubes, these atomically thin materials are optically active, yet they interact with light in a polarization-selective manner. They can therefore serve as the basis for a novel type of quantum-optical interface where spin- and valley-polarized electrons interact with circularly polarized photons. Such a coupling device would open a route to novel applications in quantum optics and opto-valleytronics.

Quantum Simulators are systems of correlated quantum particles with experimentally tunable parameters used to solve otherwise intractable computational problems. They provide a means of investigating fundamental but complex physical processes which are at the heart of various modern technologies. This is the research field of the NIM scientist Lode Pollet, a Professor of Functional Nanosystems and recipient of an ERC Starting Grant in 2012. The current project “Quantum Simulation of Strongly Correlated Systems”, for which he has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant, extends the previous work on quantum simulation. It aims to develop novel numerical approaches to studying strongly-correlated quantum phases for challenging systems typically found in current cold atom physics.